Paolo Giovio: The Historian and the Crisis of Sixteenth-Century Italy

T. C. Price Zimmerman

Published by Princeton University Press 1996

Paolo Giovio

The Historian and the Crisis of Sixteenth-Century Italy

T. C. Price Zimmerman

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400821839

Overview
Contents

About this book

Best-known for his sweeping narrative Histories of His Own Times and for his portrait museum on Lake Como, the Italian bishop and historian Paolo Giovio (1486-1552) had contact with many of the protagonists of the great events he so vividly described--the wars of France, Germany, and Spain, and the sack of Rome. He used the information he gleaned from his contacts to carry on an extensive correspondence that became a kind of proto-journalism. With his interests in history, literature, geography, exploration, medicine, and the arts, this man reflects almost the entire spectrum of High Renaissance civilization. In a biography surveying both Giovio's life and his works, T. C. Price Zimmermann examines the historian as a figure formed by fifteenth-century humanism who was caught in the changing temper of the Counter Reformation.

Giovio's Histories remained a widely used account of the wars of Italy for nearly two hundred and fifty years, although his objectivity was often questioned owing to the patronage he received. Following Burckhardt, who began to restore Giovio's reputation more than a century ago, Zimmermann reveals a conscientious, independent-minded historian and an astute commentator on the entire Mediterranean world, the first to integrate the contemporary history of the Muslim nations with that of Europe, east and west. The book also stresses the important contributions Giovio made to the ethos of the Renaissance through his biographies and famous portrait museum, both tributes to the emerging sense of individual human personality.

Author / Editor information

T. C. Price Zimmermann is Charles A. Dana Professor of History at Davidson College.

Reviews

Winner of the 1997 Presidential Book Award, American Association of Italian Studies

Price Zimmermann gives us ... a biography, richly and elegantly portraying the life and work of the Italian historian Paolo Giovio.... Zimmermann's account of Giovio is splendid. It applies profound scholarship in gracefully readable style to a man and a time of extraordinary interest, the combination making for an irresistible read.

Winner of the 1996 Helen and Howard Marraro Prize, American Historical Association

Price Zimmermann provides a comprehensive account of Giovio's life and works based on an exhaustive examination of the sources and years of reflection.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Used in the Notes and Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
CHAPTER ONE. Origines (1486–1511) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER TWO. Humanist Physician (1512–1527) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
CHAPTER THREE. Leonine Rome (1513–1521) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
CHAPTER FOUR. Leo X and the Quest for the Libertas Italiae (1513–1521) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
CHAPTER FIVE. Adrian VI (1521–1523) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
CHAPTER SIX. Clement VII and the Sack of Rome (1523–1527) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
CHAPTER SEVEN. Ischia (1527–1528) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
CHAPTER EIGHT. Papal Courtier (1528–1534) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
CHAPTER NINE. Transitions (1535–1538) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
CHAPTER TEN. Courtier of the Farnese (1539–1544) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
CHAPTER ELEVEN. The Elusive Prize (1545–1549) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
CHAPTER TWELVE. De Senectute (1549–1552) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
CONCLUSION: Ad Sempiternam Vitam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
APPENDIX 1: Giovio’s Ecclesiastical Benefices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
APPENDIX 2: Sequence of Composition of the Histories Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
APPENDIX 3: First Editions of Giovio’s Works Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Select Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	373
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	383

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